ABSTRACT

This chapter explores classical conceptions of the individual/society relationship, and examines how the problem of societal order that exists at the heart of this relationship actually consists of three dimensions. It draws on D. Wrong's analysis, and highlights how the classical analyses allow to identify societal order as possessed of three distinct dimensions, namely: system integration, social integration and individual integration. Sociology adopted various approaches to the question of how society maintains a relatively ordered collective life among individuals, but the two most influential are based on the work of Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. The chapter demonstrates how classical sociological approaches acknowledged the tension that could exist between individuals and societal order without suggesting that this required the transfer of absolute power to a Leviathan. Sociological engagements with the problem of order have been nuanced in their dealings with the systemic, social and individual dimensions of societal order.